Initiatives
Rebus - Balance the Board Mentoring Programme
Rebus is our informal mentoring initiative in partnership with London Business School and Google to fast-track diversity particularly gender across the UK technology sector.
We recognised the problem of under representation of diverse talent on boards, so developed our own solution. A mentorship programme was born, we named it Rebus.
The objective is to balance the boards of the UK’s technology sector by equipping mentees with mentors who give advice and guidance, empowering these talented leaders to achieve Board level career ambitions.
It involves ‘speed mentoring’ evenings with 1-2-1 sessions where mentees are paired with mentors. The fast-paced format gives a unique opportunity to establish a chemistry to continue an informal mentoring relationship beyond the event.
Collaboration is critical to the success of Rebus. Our mentors are NED & CEOs from more than 100 leading technology companies including, Workday, Comparethemarket, Amazon Web Services, SAP, ASOS, Lastminute.com, Amino Communications, ARM Holdings Plc and Accenture.
Our commissioned video demonstrates the enthusiasm and commitment from our partners in ensuring successful rollout with 200 mentees to date going through the programme since its inception in 2018.
For 2024/2025, we are looking to embed Rebus across the US, confident in the impact the programme will have.
CEOs have taken part to date
Countries worldwide
Applications globally
CEOx1Day
CEOx1Day is designed to uncover some of the UK’s most promising future leaders and give them an opportunity to walk in the shoes of a senior executive.
The idea is simple: undergraduates apply to spend a day with a top Chief Executive to learn about the responsibility and complexities required to lead some of Britain’s leading businesses and organisations.
At the same time, CEOs can better understand what drives the next generation of leaders.
We have a keen focus on making the programme diverse and inclusive. We encourage applications from less represented groups particularly those we partner with such as Leonard Cheshire Disability and The 10,000 Interns Foundation.
Previous programmes have provided an unprecedented chance for students to work with Chief Executives and leaders from some of the UK’s most prominent businesses and organisations. Participating organisations have included:
- BT
- Cabinet Office
- PWC
- The FA
- Tate & Lyle
- DFS
- ICAEW
I became a lot more ambitious with the projects I worked on and disciplined with my academic activities. The programme gave me much needed self-confidence and validation that I was on the right track to growing into an individual capable of leading a successful organisation.
FELIX OCHEFU; Business Consultant at Lloyds Banking Group (Shadowed the CEO of ICAEW, Michael Izza)
Brightlight
We track diverse talent across industry sectors and are building a pool of aspiring leaders who are keen for their first board opportunity. The benefit to this initiative is access to some of the most talented, diverse leadership candidates who are ambitious to make a step to a post of this level. Through this programme we provide mentoring support to individuals inside and outside healthcare to look at their next career step and provide practical help and support such as interview coaching and access to networks.
In terms of the future direction of Brightlight, we intend to market this more formally in the coming time to improve the level of awareness about this programme. We are also keen to develop this further in terms of being able to put people in touch with individuals in our network who can mentor and provide advice to potential candidates.
OutsideIn
Our OutsideIn programme brings new talent into the health sector and leverages our reach across the full breadth of commercial and public sectors. Launched in 2020, we work with senior leaders from outside healthcare keen to join and contribute. We attract candidates to senior roles from wider industries in a way that few other firms are able to and we actively promote the sector to ensure we are building the strongest and most diverse talent pools. Examples of success include the appointment of Maz Ahmed (Asda Divisional Finance Director) to the Board of Bradford District Care NHSFT and Nicola Bancroft (formerly with DFS to the Board of Rotherham Hospital NHSFT). We have used our expertise to help potential candidates with understanding the complexities of the sector and the transferability of their experience.
The future direction is the continuation of this programme with an increased emphasis on further developing our talent pools to offer our clients access to a broad and diverse shortlist.
African Gifted Foundation
African Gifted Foundation (AGF) was founded by Tom Ilube CBE to provide STEM education for gifted African girls. AGF's flagship project, the African Science Academy, is a STEM-focused academy for gifted African girls from low-income backgrounds across Africa. ASA Provides its students with an intensive one-year STEM programme - Cambridge International A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths and Physics - all on full scholarships.
Students also study robotics, computer programming, a range of extracurricular activities such as sports and feminism workshops to provide them with a well-rounded education that equips them with the skills of the future.
Odgers Berndtson runs an annual speaker series for students at the African Science Academy and provides careers advice to help these gifted young women achieve their full potential.
Accelerate Mentoring Programme
The Accelerate Mentoring Programme organised by Odgers Berndtson, Grant Thornton, and the FDF, is designed to promote and improve the gender balance at board level across the food and drink industry by supporting the accelerated development of female and non-binary talent. When done well, we believe mentoring is a two-way process that should challenge both the mentors and the mentees.
Our mentoring scheme is aimed at helping accelerate female or non-binary leaders aspiring to get to board level. We are therefore looking for mentees who are high-achieving female and non-binary leaders, currently in a senior management position, actively seeking progression to board level in their next career move. Our mentors can be male, female or non-binary leaders who hold board level roles either as an Executive, Non-Executive Director or as an Owner/Founder.
This programme aims to support female and non-binary leaders, from a diverse range of backgrounds, to develop to their full potential.
Currently female and non-binary leaders occupy only 35.2% of board roles in FTSE 350 food and drink companies. Data is taken from the 19 food and drink companies across food and drink manufacturing, casual dining and grocery retail industries. This is even fewer in non-listed food and beverage companies.
This programme aims to support female and non-binary leaders, from a diverse range of backgrounds, to develop to their full potential. It is well documented that the benefits of mentoring are not limited to mentees alone.
Benefits include:
- Effective career planning, development and guidance.
- Providing an environment to evaluate strengths, development requirements, and priorities as a leader.
- Promoting effective networking which provides ongoing advice through peer relationships developed within the programme.
- Encouraging participants to see challenges and opportunities through a different perspective.
- Challenging thinking and unconscious bias to increase inclusivity and empathy of both mentors and mentees
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